Insert Phone Here

Someone out there has probably had this idea already: I use my phone everyday. I just wish there was a more convenient way to carry it around. Pockets and belt cases be dammed there’s got to be a better way! Why can’t I just embed it into my arm?A prosthetic arm at least.

Pictured up top is Trevor Prideaux, born without a left forearm, he’s had a bit of a pet peeve when it came to using his phone comfortably. This became especially true with the popularity explosion of more complex smartphones . Without having to otherwise occupy his good hand, Prideaux would usually be stuck awkwardly balancing his phone on his shoulder or have to sit it down on a flat surface to talk over speakerphone. Well not anymore.

Laser Powered Prosthetics!

Just to be clear, these prosthetics aren’t actually drawing power from lasers beams. In fact, the possible prosthetics that WIRED is reporting on haven’t even been made yet. The possibilities are certainly there though. With further research (and funding) a future of highly advanced human augmentation is upon us.

According to research done at Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University in 2008, nerves can actually be stimulated by infrared light. Using short pulses of  infrared light researchers were able to successfully stimulate the sciatic nerve of a rat. While using electricity to stimulate that same nerve has been possible for quite some time, the use of infrared light was found to have:  ”improved spatial selectivity, lack of a stimulation artifact in the recorded response, and noncontact stimulus delivery.”

Form, Function, Art

High tech laser powered prosthetics? How about prosthetics that take style to another level? Forgoing the cheaper alternatives of simply buying a cheap sleeve or having someone tattoo artificial limbs, Bespoke Innovations is producing fairings that look like they’re coming straight from the future.

What’s a fairing you ask? Short and simple answer, they’re plastic coverings to standard prosthetics. The San Francisco based company uses 3D scanning technology to make sure that the fairing they produce will match up with each customer’s body type. In the same way that people have different sets of glasses for different occasions and outfits, the people behind Bespoke aim to give amputees the same option as well as providing a confidence booster. Prosthetics are not a one size fits all affair and Bespoke fully acknowledges this with the company’s tagline “Because Every Body is Different.”

Producing fairings made out of leather, wood, chrome, plastic and just about any other material, here are some examples of Bespoke’s work:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Interested in what the company can do for you? Try visiting the company’s official site here.

The First Prosthetic

The big toe imaged up top is old. Really old. And it’s a great topic for this blog to start on.

According to researchers who recovered the toe in 2000, it dates somewhere between 950 and 710 BC, and is one of the earliest examples of prosthetic use in the Ancient world.Found in the Theban Necropolis, a strip of land on the West Bank of the Nile opposite Thebes in Egypt, this particular prosthesis replaced the big toe on the right foot of an Egyptian woman. Made out of wood and leather the toe actually looks very similar to a modern day toe prosthetic. Just take a look at the image on the left for a modern example. Use of plastic aside, general shape and function are practically the same between the pictured toes and the ancient toes.

Standardized Amputation and The Future

Its’s a sad fact that amputations happen. Whenever you hear about a situation where a limb might have to be removed, you can imagine what the consulting doctor will say. It’s a somber scene in a consultation room, with the hum of a busy hospital droning in the background. “We’ll try to save as much as we can…”

It makes sense really. Of course you’d want to keep as much of your original self as possible. But is it really necessary?